Orthopedic shoe



May 5, 1959 H M; GOLDBERG 2,884,717

ORTHOPEDIC SHOE Filed Dec. 1 5, 1957 2 sheets sheet 1 Tic. Z.

"1 I INVENTOR. l HOV/1P0 /1 60406596 \A to 14 TL Ma 5, 1959 M. GOLDBERG 2,884,717

ORTHOPEDIC SHOE Filed Dec. 13, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. flaweo M Goweces 4 TTOP/YEYS United. States Patent ORTHOPEDIC SHOE Howard M. Goldberg, Bronx, NY.

Application December 13, 1957, Serial No. 702,572

2 Claims. (Cl. 368.5)

- This invention relates to an orthopedic shoe.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an extremely simple, yet highly efficient, orthopedic shoe which is able with a single basic construction to amelio rate, and often completely cure, many chronic foot ail ments.

It is another object of my invention to provide an orthopedic shoe which over a period of time itself will alter the contour of the internal sole in such manner as to remedy the chronic foot conditions of a person wearing the shoe, i.e., which automatically will adapt itself best to ameliorate or cure the defects in the foot of the person wearing it. It is another object of my invention to provide an orthopedic shoe of the character described which, unlike a molded shoe, does not rigidly confine the foot and does not drastically differ in style and shape from conventional foot-wear.

It is another object of my invention to provide an orthopedic shoe of the character described which can be made in standard sizes, shapes and styles and on standard lasts so that expensive molding and casting of individual orthopedic appliances can be eliminated.

It is another object of my invention to provide an orthopedic shoe of the character described in which the means for affecting the orthopedic correction initially is largely external to the shoe although ultimately the correction itself is located within the shoe.

It is another object of my invention to provide an orthopedic shoe of the character described which is simple and inexpensive to make, is durable in construction and constitutes relatively few parts, for example, only one part more than a comparable conventional shoe.

Other objects of my invention in part will be obvious and in part will be pointed out hereinafter.

My invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combinations of elements and arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in the orthopedic shoe hereinafter described and of which the scope of application will be indicated in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings in which is shown one of the various possible embodiments of my invention,

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a shoe constructed in accordance with the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of said shoe with the upper removed and showing the insole in its original sloped, almost plane shape;

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal central vertical section through the shoe with a wearers deformed foot indicated therein in skeletonized fashion, and showing the shoe and foot as they appear when the shoe is first donned, but before they carry the wearers weight;

Fig. 4 is a View similar to Fig. 3, but showing the shoe and foot as they appear when carrying the wearers weight;

Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 4, but showing the shoe and foot after a few weeks of wear;

Fig. 6 is a plan view of the shoe and foot shown in Fig. 3;

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary plan view of the shoe and foot shown in Fig. 5; and

Fig. 8 is a view similar to Fig. 2, but showing the insole as it appears after the shoe has been worn for a few weeks.

Referring now in detail to the drawings, the reference numeral 10 denotes a shoe constructed in accordance with my invention. Said shoe includes an upper 12 of any conventional shape, that is to say, my invention functions with equal facility whether the upper is an oxford or a high shoe, whether it is laced or not laced, whether it is made of leather, cloth or any other conventional material for an upper, and even if the upper is simply in the shape of a sandal. In other words, the specific construction of the upper is no part of my invention, al though it is necessary for the shoe to have an upper in order to hold the foot within the shoe.

The shoe also includes a sole 14 which is a part of my invention. In several respects the sole construction is conventional. Thus, the sole may include the usual insole 16 which simply constitutes a sock lining and conventionally is made of thin skived leather, or, if desired, of a thin layer of foam rubber..

The sole further includes intermediate thick layer 18 which sometimes is referred to by the art as a platform and over which the insole is disposed. This platform extends over the entire length and width of the shoe from toe to counter and from side to side of the insole. The platform preferably is thicker at the back of the shoe than at the front, as is customary, in order to elevate the wearers heel to a desirable extent, e. g., about A to /2 inch more than the ball. Desirably the minimum thickness for the platform is inch.

In accordance with my invention, the platform includes throughout its full length and breadth, or is fashioned from, a deformable material, that is to say, a material which will, over a period of time, if subjected to pressure, experience a permanent change of shape that conforms to this pressure. A typical deformable material is leather. However, I do not wish to be limited thereto and have found that I have secured excellent results with paperboard, i.e., a felted, sheeted mass of paper fibers cut to the desired outline and formed to the desired elevational shape which varies in thickness from front to rear of the shoe, but initially is of uniform density throughout all parts of the platform. Another material which I have found to be satisfactory for the platform is ground cork molded with a binder to the desired shape. Each of these materials is characterized by its ability to change its shape when pressures are applied thereto over a period of days and weeks and thereafter to maintain the new shape. I wish to mention that I cannot use elastomeric materials, as for example, rubber, which will change its shape under pressure, but will only hold the change as long as the pressure is maintained.

In the preferred form of my invention and the one shown herein, I utilize paperboard. However, since paperboard tends to deteriorate under the weather conditions to which a shoe is exposed in normal use, I protect the edges thereof with a strip 19 of more durable material, such for instance, as leather.

The upper, insole and platform are permanently secured together in any fashion well known to the art, as for example, by stitching or cementing, my invention working equally well with both methods of attachment.

The bottom of the platform is, before the shoe is worn, flat, i.e., plane, that is to say there is no exposed breast on a heel and no externally sloped shank portion beneath the instep of the foot. Rather, the entire shoe at the bottom of the platform is uniformly flat and level. Moreover, it will be noted that I have not described the presence in the shoe of the usual reinforcing shank insert which customarily is made of steel and also has been made of various other materials, e.g., plastic, hard rubber and Wood. The shoe 1% embodying my invention is free of a shank insert so that there is nothing in the shank to stiffen the shoe at this region. Thus the entire sole is freely deformable. The reason for this will be apparent later.

Inasmuch as the platform is employed principally for orthopedic rather than esthetic purposes, as will be described hereinafter, and since, accordingly, it is not desired to damage the platform by subjecting it to Wear, the shoe 16 further includes an outsole, i.e. wear, sole 20 which is made of any of the usual materials employed for this purpose. A desirable material is leather; however, I have secured equally good results with dense rubber, synthetic rubber and foam rubber. The outsole is secured to the platform in any suitable manner depending upon the material of which it is made, for example, it can be stitched, tacked or glued in place. It will be observed that pursuant to my invention the shoe does not include the usual distinct heel. Rather, the outsole is a continuous sheet of material that extends from the toe to the counter in an unbroken piece and preferably is of uniform thickness, although it is within the scope of my invention to have it vary in thickness, increasing, for example, toward the counter in the same general manner as the platform. The lower surface of the shoe at the outsole is plane and flat.

it should be mentioned that the platform and outsole are substantially as wide as the upper over its entire length, that is to say, these parts of the shoe are somewhat wider than the foot of the wearer who will don the shoe and they are not at the instep narrower than the upper as they are in a conventional shoe. The reason for this unusually great width will be pointed out hereinafter.

A shoe constituting an upper end, optionally, an in sole, as well as an outsole and platform, all as described hereinabove, still is incapable of carrying out my invention unless there further is included a pad 22. Said pad can be made of any flexible material, desirably being made from a dense live rubber such, for instance, as the material ordinarily employed for rubber heels or rubber soles in shoes. Moreover I have found that satisfactory results can be obtained Where the pad is fabricated from ordinary shoe sole leather.

The pad is located on the under surface of the outsole, being attached thereto as by cementing and being located in the general region of the instep of the shoe. More specifically, the pad has a front edge 24 which extends transversely across the shoe at the ball thereof. Said front edge of the pad at the inner side of the shoe is located substantially in the region of the head 26 of the first metatarsal bone and extends across to the outer side of the shoe in a gradually rearwardly sloping direction, being at said outer side located a fraction of an inch, e.g. /3 inch, behind the head 28 of the fifth metatarsal bone. It will be understood by those skilled in the art of podiatry that this description necessarily cannot be exact since even normal feet have bones of various proportions and shapes, and abnormal feet with which my invention particularly is to be used, depart even further from standard configurations, dimensions and locations. Accordingly, the description of the location of the front edge of the pad is to be understood as being given in connection with an average normal foot and will be thus comprehended by workers in this field.

The rear edge 30 of the pad likewise extends transversely across the full width of the shoe, without, however, any noticeable slope in either direction. Said rear edge is located approximately /2 inch in back of what 4 would be the normal position H of the breast of a heel on the shoe (indicated by a dotted line in Fig. 5).

The pad has its lateral edges in registration with the superposed lateral edges of the corresponding portions of the outsole and platform, so that these edges are in vertical alignment. Therefore, the pad is of the same full width as the corresponding portions of the outsole and platform.

The forward and rear marginal portions of the pad adjacent the front and rear edges thereof are feathered, i.e. tapered to a thin edge. I have found that various angles of feathering Work equally well and have shown an angle of about 30. However, I have obtained satisfactory results with angles of as little as 15 and as much as 45. Except for the feathering, the undersurface of the pad is flat and plane, being parallel, therefore, to the undersurface of the platform and of the outsole.

When a wearer dons a shoe embodying my invention, and before he places any weight on his feet, the undersurface of the pad 22 will be located below the entire undersurfaice of the outsole 20, as shown, for example, in Fig. 3. However, when the wearer places the shoe with his foot in it on the ground and lets his weight rest thereon, the shoe will bow, as shown in Fig. 4. The heel and forward portions of the outsole then will contact the ground. Between these portions the undersurface of the pad will rest on the ground, so that in effect, the shoe is flexed, i.e. bowed, upwardly.

If the foot is deformed, for example, if there is a condition such as shown in Figs. 3 and 6, wherein the proximal and distal phalanxes of the first, i.e., big toe are crossed over the proximal phalanx of the second toe, the bowing of the shoe will press against the first and second metatarsal bones and exert an extending and separating action on these bones. The result of this action will be, over a period of a few days, to straighten out the phalanxes of the big toe.

The pressure exerted on the bones is not great, nor is it suddenly applied, so that it will not tense the muscles of the foot and thereby inhibit corrective action. The correcting force is provided because reactive pressure is exerted upwardly from the ground through the pad, the outsole, the platform and the insole. Accordingly, in eifect, although not in reality, the instep of the wearers foot is pressed against the ground. However, the arch of a human instep is of irregular shape, high in the middle and lower forwardly and rearwardly, high on the inside of the foot and lower on the outside of the foot. Therefore, as the aforesaid pressure is maintained against the underside of the instep of the foot, the bones of the arch, despite the cushion of flesh thereunder, will tend to compress the deformable material of the platform. Since the center and inside portion of the human arch has a less rigid structure than the outside, front and back of the arch, less pressure will be exerted by the middle and inside of the arch than elsewhere, and the platform therefore will tend to compress to a greater degree at the back and front of the arch and at the outer side thereof.

The actual amounts and locations of the pressures developed will depend upon the particular deformity of the foot, and in a matter of a few days or two or three weeks, a mound will be formed consisting of the material of the platform, which, being deformable, has been compressed at the back, front and outer side of the arch of the foot leaving an elevated mound which gently presses against the arch from front to back and over the entire width thereof, even the inner side. This mound, which is indicated by the reference numeral 32 in Figs. 5 and 8, functions in the same fashion as an orthopedic appliance which previously has had to be specially shaped and inserted in the shoe. Moreover, this mound has a great advantage over an ordinary orthopedic appliance in that it only gradually is shaped and therefore does not apply sudden and painful pressures to the foot. Furthermore, the mound as thus developed, always is accurate and will exactly fit the wearer so as to provide with certainty the desired orthopedic correction.

Attention is called to the fact that an ordinary orthopedic appliance must extend upwardly and outwardly from the inner edge of the insole because in a conventional shoe the shank is narrower than the upper and narrower than the full width of the arch of a wearers foot. However, in a shoe embodying the present invention, as pointed out hereinabove, the outsole and platform are equal in width to the upper, particularly at t-e shank of the shoe whereby to insure that the mound 32 is formed even beneath the inner edge of the wearers arch.

It further will be appreciated from the above description, that the mound is not affected, -i.e. distorted, by the presence of any stiff bodies, such for instance, as a reinforcing shank which would prevent the mound from being properly shaped.

It also is desired to observe that the locations of the front and back edges of the pad 22 are extremely important to exact and proper formation of the orthopedic mound, inasmuch as these edges are located at the front and back portions of the skeletal arch of the foot where support normally is exclusively provided. However in a shoe embodying my invention these locations merely mark the front and back edges of additional support for the complete undersurface of the arch of a wearers foot due to the presence of the pad and of the flat bottomed platform and outsole.

As the shoe is used for a period of time, there will be a tendency to wear down the front and back feathered edges of the pad. However, I have noted that this does not affect the mound which by now has been formed by deformation of the material of the platform, and even when the pad is almost completely worn out, the desired orthopedic correction still will be maintained and applied.

It thus will be seen that I have provided an orthopedic shoe which achieves the various objects of my invention and is well adapted to meet the conditions of practical use.

As various possible embodiments might be made of the above invention and as various changes might be made in the embodiment above set forth, it is to be understood that all matter herein described or shown in the accompanying drawings is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. In a shoe having an upper, a platform including a thick layer of permanently freely deformable material extending the full length and width of the shoe and having a flat, broad bottom which completely underlies all of a wearers foot, the shank of said shoe being free of reinforcing elements, a flat wear sole under and co-extensive with the platform, and a pad of flexible material located beneath the bottom of the sole and permanently secured thereto, the front and rear edges of said pad being feathered and being located respectively at about the ball portion and front of the heel portion of the shoe, said pad being as wide as the portion of the sole it underlies.

2. In a shoe having an upper, a platform including a thick layer of permanently freely deformable material extending the full length and width of the shoe and having a fiat, broad bottom which completely underlies all of a wearers foot, the shank of said shoe being free of reinforcing elements, a fiat wear sole under and co-extensive with the platform, and a rubber flat bottomed pad of flexible material located beneath the bottom of the sole and permanently secured thereto, the front and rear edges of said pad being feathered and being located respectively at about the ball portion and front of the heel portion of the shoe, said pad being as wide as the portion of the sole it underlies.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,126,038 Leonard Jan. 26, 1915 1,410,338 Martin Mar. 21, 1922 1,728,219 Smith Sept. 17, 1929 1,781,118 Marcus Nov. 11, 1930 1,915,627 Stagl June 27, 1933 2,095,488 Cobb Oct. 12, 1937 2,307,032 Fisch Jan. 5, 1943 

